The Kenyan nonprofit Food 4 Education is creating the blueprint to accelerate sustainable school feeding programs in Africa .
Named to the fourth annual TIME100 Most Influential Companies list , Food 4 Education is recognized for its vital role in ensuring Africa’s children – the global workforce of the future – have access to a hot, affordable, and nutritious school meal every day.
The non-profit is on a mission to eradicate childhood hunger by mainstreaming scalable and high-quality school feeding across Africa.
“In only 25 years, one in four people will be African – this seismic demographic shift underscores the urgency of expanding locally-rooted school feeding programs as a crucial investment in our shared future. It also represents a significant opportunity to build more resilient, just, and sustainable food systems across the continent,” says Wawira Njiru, CEO, Food 4 Education.
The Transforming Power of Food 4 Education
Every day, millions of African school children wake up to the devastating reality of hunger, affecting not only their physical health but their cognitive and social-emotional development – 90% lack a minimally appropriate diet and 50% don’t eat at recommended frequencies.
As the largest locally-led and independently run school feeding program in Africa, Food 4 Education is working to close this hunger gap by creating the blueprint for scalable, replicable, and cost-efficient school feeding across Africa.
“Today serves as proof of the transformative power of food in changing lives. As an African non-profit, we take immense pride in being recognized in the TIME100 list, alongside numerous innovative and impactful companies worldwide,” says Nijiru.
From feeding 25 kids from a single makeshift kitchen in 2012, Food 4 Education has evolved into a large-scale operation that now provides over 300,000 meals daily, demonstrating the vision, dedication, and operational efficiency of a global food corporation.
Working across multiple value chains, Food 4 Education sits at the heart of a locally-powered network that includes thousands of smallholder farmers (75% women-led), a trusted pool of aggregators, a 30,000 ft2 warehouse, 20 centralized and 55 semi-centralized rural kitchens reaching more than 1,000 schools.
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Food 4 Education board chair Kristin Groos Richmond comments, “Having co-founded and worked as the CEO of Revolution Foods delivering healthy school meals in the United States, I understand the profound impact that access to nutritious food can have on a child’s ability to learn and thrive. Witnessing the dedication of Food 4 Education in tackling childhood hunger in Africa is deeply personal to me. I am honored to support Food 4 Education and its innovative approach to transforming lives through nutrition and education, which this extraordinary award by TIME so aptly recognizes.
Through a strategic alliance of philanthropy, government, and parent ownership, Food 4 Education working model prioritizes the highest nutritional quality, investment in local economies and communities, people-centered innovation and operational excellence.
To date, its efforts are driving a sustained, positive impact on nutritional, educational and economic outcomes for school children and the wider local community with 100% daily dietary diversity needs met, up to 37% increase in school enrollment, and over 3,000 jobs created.
To learn more about Food 4 Education, visit online and follow the organization on Instagram.
This story originally appeared in Cuisine Noir Magazine
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